Students today have become the multi-task generation with texting, email and the web 2.0 in general.  Technology could be seen as the new wave of learning in the classroom.  Rhetoricians and Educators have tried some of the tools used by students to improve classroom participation.  Some educators want to harness the potential behind this multi-functional group of students, while other educators see their influence as a passing fad.  Should this generation be ignored?  Should the educational field reject the change that technology could bring to the classroom? 

            Rhetoric is defined by Burke as “dramatistic” a field constantly in motion by those who use it and modify it, depending on our societies needs.  If Burke is correct then couldn’t technology be seen as the new wave of rhetoric?  One type of tool in particular has gained more usage with time, but many rhetoricians and educators want to deny the potential behind this tool as merely, “junk mail” or “junk text”.  So far texting has been the thorn in every educators side since the invention of it, but now with tweeting texting has grown to a much larger scale and audience. 

            Could tweeting be used for educational purposes instead of the endless report of “where you at”?  Or “What is Britney Spears tweeting now”?  I propose tweeting can and has been used for educational purposes; that tweeting could become a much larger player in rhetorical history with how it is being used and how it will be used in our future.  Texting is but the tip of the ice berg when it comes to the second phase of texting, which is tweeting.  Teachers have tried to stop texting in the classroom, but soon they will lose the battle with the invention of 3D key boards and laser projection computers.  Why not invite the inevitable?  Why not embrace the future?  Educators could embrace tweeting, instead of barricading the door to their classrooms with books and the chalk board.  My paper will look at the pros and cons of tweeting in the classroom, how it can benefit the educational and rhetorical community.

            In a larger context, I will look at tweeting in general and how it has changed our society in a larger scale.  How has it changed, the media, the work place, politics, as well as social and family interactions.  How has language changed through this new medium?  How has our society changed from this online diatribe of cultures and social interaction?  What way do I see this impacting our future?  What happens beyond tweeting?  What could be our new rhetorical interaction in the future?  I hope to answer these questions plus the following:

ü  How can educators use tweeting for ESL students?

ü  In what ways could tweeting be used in the classroom?

ü  What ways could tweeting be used in our society?

ü  How could tweeting change global interaction?

ü  Does tweeting change how the brain functions?

ü  Can too much tweeting cause seclusion?

ü  Can tweeting lead to an “other” reality?

ü  Could tweeting cause loss of “self”?

            I will not only look at how tweeting can help society but how it could harm it.  If there is some concrete proof that technology is rotting our brains I will try to find it!  In my quest for knowledge I will look at the good, the bad and (yes I am gonna say it) the ugly!  I myself use tweeting so I will also experiment with my tweeting and see how my own experiments within the tweeting world will produce any new nibbles of information worth discussing.  So for now, “tweet, tweet, tweetitily tweet”!